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The Leicester Unemployed marchers, 1905 |
It was a six-day, 100-mile march with
the goal of meeting King Edward VII or if not the Home Secretary or the
Archbishop of Canterbury. All they wanted was answers and the promise that
conditions would improve. They really needed to improve as well. Unemployment
was huge at 15% and had been further fuelled by the ending of Boer War.
Leicester was famous for its hosiery and shoe manufacturing and with factories
working to full capacity to make boots for the soldiers during the war, when it
ended people were laid off while remaining staff were given shorter hours. In
those days there was no money to collect from the state for the unemployed and
if you didn’t have family or friends to lend a hand – you starved. Life in the
slums of Leicester was at an all-time low so the people decided to make their
voices heard.
On the morning of June 4, 1905, some
30,000 people gathered at Leicester Market Place to show their support to the
497 men who decided to march. The men
wore heavy hobnail boots, looked rather dirty and were, obviously, very poor. From
Leicester to Market Harborough, through Northampton, Luton and St. Albans –
they arrived at London, sleeping in old churches and cattle sheds along the
way. It would be nice to think that all 497 men completed the journey but the
total that reached the capital was only 437. Bad weather, fatigue, injury and
exhaustion had whittled the numbers down.
The UK’s working class offered a
supportive attitude to the Leicester marchers. A Market Harborough barber
offered free haircuts and free food and drink was provided by local shops along
the route, but although the people were kind, the media certainly wasn’t. The
Times newspaper reported: “A walk to London, especially if food and shelter on
the way are provided free, will always be attractive to the restless, the
shiftless, or the simpletons among the unemployed and unemployable. This form
of menace must be resisted. They must be assured their walk proves nothing.”
The marchers arrived in London on the
Friday evening and arranged to meet in Hyde Park the following day. Their plans
were scuppered by stormy weather and they ended up being split into two groups.
The larger group never made it to Hyde Park and only 120 men turned up. Local
London well-wishers were also at a minimum due to the weather. It was a sad end
to wonderfully proactive march with a purpose, and to make matters worse, the
king refused a meeting.
This plaque in Leicester Market Place honours the marchers |
On Sunday June 11, when all hope was
lost, prayers were said in honour of the marchers in Westminster Abbey and,
without a great deal of hope, a hasty gathering in Trafalgar Square was attempted.
This time there was some success. A crowd of 50,000 working class Londoners
arrived to honour the Leicester marchers. Although the journey didn’t get the
results they wanted, the Londoners did turn out to support the Leicester men in
the end – when the weather died down of course. The long walk home now didn’t
feel as bad and although it took another seven days they were greeted by
Leicester-folk as heroes with tens of thousands of people once again gathered in
Leicester Market Place.
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The gathered crowd at Leicester Market Place to welcome home the marchers. |
The leaders of the march all gained the
respect of Leicester citizens and, as a result, two of the three went on to be hugely
successful. Amos Sherriff would
become Mayor of Leicester in 1922 and the Reverend F.L. Donaldson, vicar of St Mark's Church, became a Canon
of Westminster Abbey. The other march-leader was George ‘Sticky’ White, secretary of the Unemployed Committee, called
'Sticky' because he walked everywhere with a stick. Despite his disability, he
walked all the way to London with the others but for reason unknown he only received
little fanfare when he returned to Leicester. He sadly committed suicide in the
1920s.
In the same year that Amos Sherriff
became Mayor of Leicester, Liberal leader David Lloyd George became Prime
Minister and laid the foundations of the welfare state, including unemployment
insurance. I am sure that the Leicester march was successful in raising
awareness for the cause and at that time it was the most impressive march to
have ever taken place in England. Thirty years later the Jarrow marchers
acknowledged the influence of their Leicester forebears.
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The leaders of the unemployment march |
The march was a remarkable humanitarian
effort by ordinary Leicester people who were successful in raising public
awareness of the plight of the working class, paving the way for change and
sowing the seed of the welfare state.
by Matthew Sibson
by Matthew Sibson
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